Sermon by Reverend Dr. John W. Mann | July 30, 2023

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-48

God’s grace is life giving, sheltering and welcoming. Seemingly small acts can have a big impact. Sometimes people will ask me, “What led you to ministry?” If I think about it, I have to say, it all started with a banana. In the summer of 1964, I was ten years old. There was a church in the neighborhood that ran a boy’s club on Wednesday nights. I started showing up. They did fun stuff. That summer they organized a day trip to the Seattle World’s Fair. Sign me up.

I showed up to the church at the appointed time. There was waiting around; getting organized. The grown-ups were doing grown up things and boys acting like boys do. I was sitting quietly by myself. Minding my own business.

One of the grown-ups came over and sat down beside me. He asked, “What’s your name?” I told him. He said, “It’s nice to meet you John. My name is Pastor Bud.” We spoke for a few minutes. Yes, I was looking forward to the day. It’s good to have you along, I hope you have a fun time, that sort of thing.

Pastor Bud drove the church’s old school bus and there other adult men along to ride herd on us. It was a fun day indeed. I even got sick from one of the rides and all the junk I ate. On the ride back, a bus full of tired boys and men. All was calm; too calm it seemed. One of the boys had a banana that he mushed up into a ball. He threw this banana ball the length of the bus, thinking perhaps it would hit someone, somewhere. The banana ball made it the entire length of the bus, over Pastor Bud’s shoulder, to where it landed with a splat on the inside of the windshield.

The bus pulled over and stopped. Uh oh, somebody is in for it now, that’s for sure. The dome lights came on to illuminate a bus full of innocent looking, angelic boys. Pastor Bud stood in the aisle, looking at us. Without raising his voice, he pointed out that throwing a mushed-up banana like that is a dangerous thing to do. It could cause an accident. We knew better than that, he said. I didn’t even throw the banana and I felt guilty. This fellow, Pastor Bud, he had the patience of a saint.

I continued with the boy’s club. There were more trips. Trips to places; camping trips. Pastor Bud, or just Bud as we learned to call him, his real name was Harold, was always around; always available for a conversation. Sometimes, after he had been the youth pastor at that church for a number of years, people would ask him, “Bud, when are you going to get your own church? You should move up to your own church.” He always said he enjoyed what he was doing. Someday he would move, when the time was right.

After Bud had been there for ten years or so, the church called a new senior pastor. This guy had a big vision for church growth and Bud didn’t fit into his picture. Bud was not very organized. He struggled with his weight. He was not a very good preacher. He was often late. He was not what you would call a “go getter.”

There were times during high school, and even into the college years, when my friends and I would say, “Let’s go over to the church and see if Bud’s around.” He seemed to love nothing more than to have his day interrupted by us. Sometimes if we didn’t have any money, he would spring for lunch.

Eventually, he did move on up to his own church. It was fine for a while. But after some years, he moved on to other things. He worked as a driving instructor; he delivered newspapers. Nothing like when he was our pastor; our youth pastor.

Sometimes when I get together with my friends from those days, we talk about all the people whom Bud influenced. We count around a dozen of us who entered the ministry because of his influence. I chose to attend Bethel Seminary because that’s where Bud went. And then I think of countless others, whose lives have been blessed, down through the years, throughout the world; blessing after blessing that can be traced back to that one guy.

Like so much about this Christian experience of ours, its true meaning is difficult to measure by standard means. Like Bud, it was in the relationships that were built and nurtured. A few years ago, he was coming to the end of his life’s journey. I called him to thank him for what he meant to me. I told him, “I knew who threw that banana in 1964, but I didn’t have the heart to tell on him.”

The way of the world looks at someone like Bud and concludes that he never amounted to much. The way of Jesus, as he described “The Kingdom of Heaven,” looks at someone like Bud and concludes, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

Part of my studies involved a class called, “The Local Church in Mission.” One of the requirements was creating a project whereby the church could engage in some sort of mission outreach. The churches I was serving in Clarion and Dows were obliging enough of me and my projects.

The Dows church took on this particular class project for me. We talked about the needs in our community and how we as a church might address them. We came up with a brilliant plan. We would call it, “Helping Hands.” We would coordinate volunteers in the community who would help out the sizeable elderly population in the town. Simple things like grocery shopping or helping someone with a ride to the clinic or picking up prescriptions. We had it all the details worked out and in place.

The response was, well, kind of like the sound of crickets; like grass growing up through the cracks in a sidewalk; or a tumbleweed rolling down the street. What went wrong? Did people not want our help? When we looked into the reasons for our failure, the results were clear: People did not need our help. What we proposed to do, was already being done. Helping hands were at work through friends, neighbors, and family members. Helping hands was at the heart of the community. No one needed a program or a structure or a plan. People just did what friends, neighbors and communities do. In a sense, that project was a failure, but its outcome was a success. It revealed something about the way God works.

Jesus said that this “Kingdom of Heaven” is like yeast that a woman mixes into the flour for bread. The yeast is not showy, nor loud, nor demanding of attention or accolades. The yeast makes things happen. The yeast makes the dough into bread. Like God’s grace makes things happen. God’s grace is empowering. It’s not always apparent, but its effects are evident.

What do you care most about in the world? It’s a big question, but probably not a difficult question.

A fable from India tells of a villager who met a traveling wise man. The wise man asked the villager, “What do you care most about in life?” The villager replied, “I’ve always been poor. I wish that I could know what it is like to be truly wealthy.”

“That’s easy,” said the wise man. He rummaged in his backpack and brought out a large diamond; a truly great specimen. “Take this,” he said, “and you will discover the meaning of true riches. I will return this way in a year and you can tell me what you have found out.”

The villager was astounded. He took the diamond and marveled at its beauty. Soon, everyone wanted to see it. Just owning this gem made the villager an important man in the region. Within a year, his life turned completely around, and he had everything he ever dreamed of. But still, he dreamed of more. He couldn’t quite figure out what that “more” was, but he sensed deep in his heart, that there was something more that he was missing out on.

As he had promised, the wise man came along through the village about a year later. The two met up once again. The wise man asked, “So tell me, how have you enjoyed your wealth? Have you discovered what you care most about in life?”

The villager thought for a moment. He brought out the diamond and the light shone through it, the light was as clear as the day.  He said to the wise man, “I’ve always been poor. I wish that I could know what it is like to be truly wealthy. Show me the riches of the heart and soul that will empower me to give this away, like you did.”

What do you care most about in the world? It’s a big question, but probably not a difficult question. To know the meaning of life, we must learn the meaning of love. When we discover that path, then we touch upon eternity. The eternity Jesus described as the “Kingdom of Heaven.” Like a mustard seed, like yeast, like hidden treasure, like a pearl of great price. The treasure that is impossible to keep just to ourselves. Amen.